Nutraceutical compositions (e.g. foods or naturally occurring food supplements intended for human ingestion, and thought to have a beneficial effect on human health) are commonly used for their preventative and medicinal qualities. Various nutraceuticals are recognized as providing relief from or preventing specific diseases and ailments. Such nutraceuticals may comprise a single element, such as broccoli, which contains sulphrophane commonly believed to prevent cancer. Or, alternatively, may comprise of complex combinations of substances resulting in a nutraceutical that provides specific benefits. For obvious reasons there is a constant demand for any new composition that can provide additional health benefits over existing Nutraceuticals.
Often, a combination of several substances results in unexpected benefits due to the synergistic nature of the substances. For example, substance A may be known to provide benefit X and substance B may be known to provide benefit Y. While it might be expected that a combination of A and B will result in benefits X and Y, due to the synergistic nature of the combination, benefit Z may unexpectedly be present. When useful synergistic properties are discovered in a combination of substances, the developed nutraceuticals often offer valuable health benefits not found in other substances. Additionally, nutraceuticals derived from unknown or little-known substances may offer health benefits previously unrecognized.